Q&A: Splash House Founder Tyler McLean On The Palm Springs Festival

Forbes

a day ago

Tomorrow (Friday, August 15) thousands of fans will once again converge on a trio of Palm Springs hotels for weekend two of the annual Splash House event. Part music festival, part pool party, part concert, the two-weekend event has become both an iconic celebration and showcase for top electronic dance music talent.
The brainchild of Palm Springs native Tyler McLean over a decade ago, Splash House has also become, as it was intended to be, a love letter to and a showcase for his hometown.
I spoke with McLean about the evolution of Splash House, the music, the community and what makes it such a unique and beloved summer soiree.
Steve Baltin: How much of a break do you get between the two weeks?
Tyler McLean: The two weeks in a row is nice because then nothing has to be rebuilt So, the second weekend you're kind of going into it with fresh legs. We definitely have a few days to recover before the next one.
Baltin: Do you find that the two have very different vibes similar to the way the two Coachella weekends have very different vibes?
McLean: That's an interesting question. I don't think so. But maybe it's a little tougher to gauge because these are two different lineups. So, yeah, in a certain sense, the vibes are, of course, a little different, but it's an entirely different lineup. So, it's intentionally meant to be somewhat of a different experience. But I think that our fans are our fans, whether it's weekend one or weekend two, and it's not so much of a choice of like, 'Do I want to go weekend one verses [weekend two]
Baltin: Do you get a lot of repeat customers?
McLean: Yeah, we have a thing called the season pass. So if someone wants to be able to go both weekends we offer them the ability to do that. But there are a lot of people that go both weekends, whether they are local and they just like to attend both, or they have different groups or big groups or just love the show. So, there's definitely a small but mighty fan base for this show.
Baltin: I interviewed, not long ago, the CEO of Summer Fest in Milwaukee, and I'm thinking of something with Quentin from Jazz Fest a year ago. A lot of great festivals are so tied to their city. For you as a Palm Springs native, do you feel like this can happen or is it very distinctly Palm Springs?
McLean: I wouldn't say that it can't happen anywhere else, but I will say that the show was created and designed, and I have put everything into the show with the ethos of Palm Springs in mind. That starts with just the general model of it. The idea of stitching multiple hotel resort pools together into a music festival, that's so uniquely Palm Springs, the city that has more pools per capita than any city in the world. It is, in essence, a love story to Palm Springs, it's a celebration of Palm Springs, this idea of celebrating pools, pool life, pool culture, resorts, and bringing them all together into one larger music experience across all of these. And each venue has its own personality, its own look and feel that drives its own subculture within the show. So yeah, I think without a doubt the show is so intertwined with the ethos of Palm Springs and that's how it started and it's how we've grown and evolved over the years. We've just embraced that as part of our ethos of the show. I don't want to rule out the idea of maybe trying this somewhere else, but I think for right now I would agree, it is meant for Palm Springs only.
Baltin: Palm Springs has such a unique history and such a unique color to it. Talk about how that incorporates into it.
McLean: Yeah, it has a cool history to it as this like playground for LA. And it's close, but it's a total escape from the city. I think that is part of the identity of the city and it's part of the identity of the show. It's not just like I said, the pools, but it's the architecture, it's the look and feel of the whole city. And I think we definitely try to embrace that and envelop that into our brand. Various stage designs are built, like in the past one of our stages was a mid-century house like a Wexler design butterfly roof house. We tried to showcase the city in its architectural heritage or its design identity, whether that's the on-site production of the physical experience on-site or how we present ourselves as our brand.
Baltin: Don't you incorporate quite a bit into nightlife and other areas as well?
McLean: Yeah, we have the Air Museum. When we started the show, it was only the daytime thing. And then over the course of three or four years, we slowly started throwing after parties. Then at a certain point, I called the Palm Springs Air Museum, and I said, 'Hey, would you be willing to have us?' They not only have had us, but they've totally embraced us. So, the Air Museum has become our bigger stage, our nighttime home. We call it after hours at the Air Museum. We have both our Friday night opening party there and as well as Saturday night main stage concert there. So, we have some major artists there this year, from Disclosure to Cloonee to Diplo and Blondish. So, you have definitely that nighttime compliment to the daytime pools.
Baltin: How important was it to add nighttime programming?
McLean: Yeah, our official programming, we have the main hotel stages and then we have the air museum which goes until 2 a m. But the subculture of renegade room parties is definitely a thing at the show that has evolved and grown beyond anything I could have [imagined]. Across the three hotels, we have about 1200 hotel rooms. These are total buyouts of every hotel, the Saguaro, Riviera and Renaissance. So, everyone staying at these hotels is part of the show. It's somewhat like a cruise ship, right? Everyone's there for the same experience. But so many people that are coming to the show are just bringing in DJ gear and decking out their rooms like their own festival experience in there. So, you could spend hours after our official programming ends hopping between all these different room experiences and room parties. It's like little immersive experiences within the show. So, it's just something that the fans have taken on and embraced and developed into its own part of the show. It's pretty wild and amazing.
Baltin: In 13 years there are people who played multiple times. Are there one or two artists that you feel are really synonymous with Splash House, those people who represent the Splash House vibe?
McLean: Yeah, I think that Cloonee this year is a pretty awesome one. Cloonee is someone who has basically played almost every stage of the show. He started at the Saguara at the smallest venue and then moved to the Riviera during what was kind of a hurricane here for us and then now is playing our biggest venue at the Air Museum. I think those kinds of stories of artists fit perfectly in our lane. Cloonee's not the only example, but I think it's a great one. There are a lot of artists that played the show multiple times. Diplo is one of those too that have played multiple venues. Super appreciative of these artists that keep coming back and playing. Twelve years in, I think we've gotten through most of those white elephants, but I'm sure there's a few more out there that we will want to get out here.
Baltin: Next obvious question: who's the dream?
McLean: I have to say that the fact that we had Justice doing a DJ set at the Renaissance pool is pretty damn cool looking and elegant in back. I don't know how you can top that.
Baltin: Give me your top two or three tips of how you do Splash House for the first time.
McLean: You've got to pace yourself. Don't come out of the gate too hot. That's definitely important. Drink a lot of water. Make sure you have some cooling portable fan. But then what I would say is split your time. If you're going to do multiple hotels in a day split it in half. If you want to do, let's say the Saguaro and the Renaissance start your day at the Saguaro and then move to the Renaissance for the second half of the day, take two hotels in a day and then another two hotels in the next day. It's easy to get between these hotels, but at the same time it's like you might as well spend more time at the stage versus traversing between these venues. So definitely try to shuttle between the stages. The shuttles are always there. But once you get to a venue around six or seven PM, stay put. Find your home base where you want to catch the later half of the day. So that's definitely part of it. But don't miss the Air Museum. It's a pretty awesome part of the experience. And definitely check out all three hotels. They all each have their own unique feel.